Register of Heritage Places Assessment Documentation
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REGISTER OF HERITAGE PLACES ASSESSMENT DOCUMENTATION 11. ASSESSMENT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE The criteria adopted by the Heritage Council in November 1996 have been used to determine the cultural heritage significance of the place. PRINCIPAL AUSTRALIAN HISTORIC THEME(S) • 3.5. Developing primary production • 3.9 Farming for commercial profit • 5.2 Organising workers and work places • 5.8 Working on the land • 8.14 Living in the country and rural settlements HERITAGE COUNCIL OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA THEME(S) • 106 Workers (incl. Aboriginal, convict) • 106 Grazing & pastoralism & dairying • 106 Early settlers • 106 Local heroes & battlers 11.1 AESTHETIC VALUE* Windarra, Moonyoonooka is valued for the recognisable aesthetic of a Victorian era vernacular style farm building. (Criterion 1.1) Windarra, Moonyoonooka demonstrates a diverse cultural environment associated with early pastoral activities in the Moonyoonooka area. (Criterion 1.3) 11.2 HISTORIC VALUE Windarra, Moonyoonooka is associated with the beginnings of pastoral settlement in the Midwest region, being located on a lease taken up in 1850. (Criteria 2.1 & 2.2) Windarra, Moonyoonooka is associated with the employment of Chinese labour for land clearing and other labour intensive farm work in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (Criterion 2.2) * For consistency, all references to architectural style are taken from Apperly, R., Irving, R., Reynolds, P. A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture. Styles and Terms from 1788 to the Present, Angus and Robertson, North Ryde, 1989. For consistency, all references to garden and landscape types and styles are taken from Ramsay, J. Parks, Gardens and Special Trees: A Classification and Assessment Method for the Register of the National Estate, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1991, with additional reference to Richards, O. Theoretical Framework for Designed Landscapes in WA, unpublished report, 1997. Register of Heritage Places 1 Windarra, Moonyoonooka 17 January 2012 Windarra, Moonyoonooka is associated with the pioneering Brown and Grant families, who owned and worked the property from 1850 to 1944, and were responsible for the construction (c.1860) and adaptation (c.1880) of the place. (Criterion 2.3) Windarra, Moonyoonooka demonstrates the use of locally available materials in the stone quarried on the property. (Criterion 2.4) 11.3 SCIENTIFIC VALUE Windarra, Moonyoonooka has the potential, through archaeological investigation, to yield information contributing to a wider understanding of the occupation of the place, the lives of the Brown and Grant families as well their servants and labourers, its function as a pastoral property, and the innovative vernacular adaptation of a farm building into a residence from the establishment of the place through to the present. (Criterion 3.2) 11.4 SOCIAL VALUE Windarra, Moonyoonooka contributes significantly to the community's sense of place as one of the oldest remaining and highly visible structures associated with the pastoral history of the region. (Criterion 4.1 & 4.2) 12. DEGREE OF SIGNIFICANCE 12.1 RARITY Windarra, Moonyoonooka is a rare example of a farm building that has been converted (c.1880) to a two-storey residence. (Criterion 5.1) Windarra, Moonyoonooka contains a rare example of a stone Kennel associated with the pastoral industry. (Criterion 5.1) 12.2 REPRESENTATIVENESS The Residence is a good representative example of a Victorian era vernacular style farm building. (Criterion 6.1) 12.3 CONDITION Generally Windarra, Moonyoonooka is in fair condition. 12.4 INTEGRITY Windarra, Moonyoonooka is occupied as a dwelling and storage facility. Original pastoral functions are no longer associated, although there is evidence of the shearing functions within the Shearing Shed. The Residence has continued this function since it was converted. 12.5 AUTHENTICITY Windarra, Moonyoonooka evidences some intervention with a complete reclad of the roof and extensive intervention of the two-storey Residence within the double volume barn structure. The Kennel remains authentic. Overall the place has a moderate degree of authenticity. Register of Heritage Places 2 Windarra, Moonyoonooka 17 January 2012 13. SUPPORTING EVIDENCE The documentation for this place is based on the heritage assessment completed by Irene Sauman, Historian and Laura Gray, Heritage and Conservation Consultant, in September 2009, with amendments and/or additions by HCWA staff and the Register Committee. 13.1 DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE Windarra, Moonyoonooka is a nineteenth century farm complex comprising a double volume Shearing Shed connected to a two-storey Residence converted from a farm building. It was located on the property originally known as Moonyoonooka and later named 'Windarra'. There is a separate stone Kennel nearby. The Aboriginal name for the Champion Bay district was 'Wootakarra' (Utacarra) and the region is the country of the Yamatji people. This large grouping is made up of a number of former smaller language groups whose boundaries moved according to the seasons. ‘Yamatji’ was a general term used by the people of the region to refer to themselves as distinct from Europeans. Mount Gould (Japarang) was considered to be the central place for the region. The areas around creeks and rivers would have been well frequented for hunting, fishing and camping.1 In 1850, Thomas and Eliza Brown took up four separate and adjoining pastoral leases in the Victoria District, near the Greenough River. They named the property 'Glengarry', but this name came eventually to refer solely to the lease on the Greenough River, which developed as the residential centre of the estate. The other three leases gradually acquired their own names, based on the local water source. Newmarracarra took its name from the Newmarugura Well and, because the horses favoured the area when they were allowed to run free, it was also called the Horse Station. Yanget station was named for Yanget Spring and the nearby Yanget Hill. Moonyoonooka derived its name from the Molonoga or Moonyonugo Spring, and was referred to as the shearing station or 'Woolshed'. Thomas Brown and his sons, Maitland, Kenneth and Aubrey ran sheep and cattle and bred horses for the British Army remount trade in India. The sons were more interested in horses than sheep or cattle and successfully rode in race meetings, both locally and in Perth. Thomas Brown died in 1863, leaving the property to his wife Eliza and his sons, who worked the place in partnership. In 1865, at the age of twenty-two, Maitland Brown was appointed Resident Magistrate at Greenough, and the following year was appointed a Stipendiary Magistrate. He moved to Greenough for the performance of his duties, returning to Glengarry only at weekends, leaving Kenneth to manage the property. In 1 Berndt, R. M. & Catherine (Eds) Aborigines of the West: Their past and present, UWA Press, 1980; Bates, D. M. The Native Tribes of Western Australia, Canberra, National Library of Australia, 1985; Hallam, Sylvia, J. 'The First Western Australians', In Stannage, C. T. (ed) A New History of Western Australia, UWA Press, Perth, 1981, pp. 35-71; Tindale, Norman B. Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their terrain, environmental controls, distribution, limits, and proper names, ANU Press, Canberra, 1974. Register of Heritage Places 3 Windarra, Moonyoonooka 17 January 2012 1871, Aubrey Brown withdrew from the brothers' partnership.2 From 1870-1872, Maitland was a nominated member of the Legislative Council, resident in Perth. When he returned to Glengarry he bought out Kenneth's share of the property and then proceeded to buy his mother's share. He reduced the carrying capacity of sheep and cattle and increased the number of horses. Maitland had the Glengarry stables complex and a cottage and stables at Newmarracarra built at this time.3 Around one hundred ticket-of-leave men were employed at Glengarry between 1862 and 1876 with most working as shepherds or hut keepers. However, it can not be confirmed whether construction work was undertaken by, ticket-of-leave men, those with conditional pardons, or free settlers.4 Stonemason John Tetlow was also employed at this time.5 John's father James Tetlow, also a stonemason, had been transported in 1850, and John had arrived in the Colony in 1853 to join his father.6 Stone was readily available in the district and was quarried on most of the properties for local construction work.7 The Shearing Shed and two-storey barn, that forms the basis of the Residence, are believed to have been built during this period. Although the barn section in which the Residence is located is clearly an addition, it is likely to also date from the 1860s-1870s period.8 The construction date of the Kennel is open to conjecture, but it would be fair to state it would have housed the sheep dogs associated with the pastoral operation of the property and the operation of the Shearing Shed. Maitland Brown's large expenditure on the property created financial problems and in 1874, he leased the Glengarry section to Thomas Major and Frederick Barlee, while retaining the remaining land (Yanget, Newmarracarra and Moonyoonooka) and occupying the cottage on Newmarracarra. In 1876, Maitland's brother Kenneth shot and killed his second wife, Mary Tindall. The Brown family covered Kenneth's defence costs over three trials, severely testing their financial resources, but despite their efforts, Kenneth was hanged later that same year.9 Major and Barlee purchased Glengarry in 1877, and in 1882, 2 Cowan, Peter, Maitland Brown: A view of nineteenth century Western Australia, Fremantle, FACP, 1988, pp. 99 & 176. 3 Bain, Mary Albertus, Ancient Landmarks, op cit, p. 176; Certificate of Title Vol. 68 Fol. 45, Victoria Location 371. 4 Glengarry Station Stables Complex: Conservation Plan, Considine and Griffiths Architects Pty Ltd. October 1999, p.67. 5 Bain, Mary Albertus, op cit, p. 176; Erickson, Rica, Bicentennial Dictionary of Western Australians, Perth, UWA Press, 1988. 6 Grant, E. J. & J. D., Notes on Moonyoonooka Station, 1981, PR14529/MOO/1; Erickson, Rica, op cit.